


Harry's Job at a Bar

by StevenTLawson



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bar Room Brawl, Running Away
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:27:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26354965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StevenTLawson/pseuds/StevenTLawson
Summary: Harry concocted a plan to avoid staying at the Dursleys any longer than he had to and ended up spending the summer working in a bar and getting the first taste of freedom in his life. How will everyone react to a Harry that is finally living for himself.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 82





	1. Chapter 1

After Harry's first year at Hogwarts, he had hoped that he could stay in the castle over the summer, as a few students do, not many, but like the Carrow Twins, whose parents are both locked up in Azkaban, Harry petitioned his head of house to do the same. But it wasn't to be, he was sent back to the Dursleys for another summer. After that he spent some time trying to figure out ways to keep himself from having to go back, if Hogwarts wasn't going to take him, someone else might.

And he had plenty of time to do it since he would hide around the school in between classes as the rumors of him being the Heir of Slytherin spread. He'd finally found something that might work in his favor. But, he'd have to be sneaky about it.

"Don't worry guys, I'll be off the train in a moment, just wanted to finish up this last page," Harry said as he had picked up a book for the long trip and made sure he had an excuse for why Ron and Hermione would disembark before him. After the door shut, he waited a moment before tossing the invisibility cloak over himself and his trunk. It would be a long and uncomfortable ride, but it was one that was preferable to an even longer time spent at Number 4 Privet Drive.

"Well the boy didn't show up," Vernon looked at his watch. "He knows I'll leave him here, and I don't make idle threats," Vernon grumbled as he felt he wasted his time coming to the station to pick up his nephew. He would just tell Petunia that the boy ran away and that would be the end of that discussion. For now.

* * *

It was nearing dark when Harry felt the train roll to a stop at Hogsmeade station. He had to be sure that no one else would come around so when he saw the conductor disembark to go down to the Hog's Head Pug for a drink, Harry was certain he would be able to go unnoticed as he hopped off the train and stared at the little village that resided just outside the castle.

"Welcome welcome," Madam Rosmerta said as she saw the door open and another patron come in. It wasn't uncommon to have all manner of folk come by on the day the school ended. After all, some of them just turned seventeen and wanted a chance to have a taste of firewhiskey or meet up with friends and family. "Well bless my soul," the bar maid said in shock. "It's Harry Potter, I wasn't expecting to see you until the next year started." Knowing he was going to be a third year this year and that was when they were allowed on Hogsmeade weekends, but with many magical families in the village it's not too unheard of for younger students to stop by on breaks.

"Hey," Harry waved shyly as he took an open seat at the bar.

"Well what can I get for you?" she asked as she waited for his order.

"Just something light," Harry meekly said as while he had a plan, executing it was still nerve wracking, so many things could potentially go wrong and he'd be in huge trouble for what he was doing. "And a uh room, for the night," he added on as this was an inn just as it was a pub so it would have some rooms just like the Leaky Cauldron.

"Odd choice," Rosmerta hummed as she scribbled a couple of things down, her highly honed senses after dealing with miscreants and students or both were telling her there was something else going on. "Visiting some friends?"

"Err, yeah, yeah," Harry quickly nodded. "I got invited to uh, Neville's," Harry added on to try and make the lie more believable.

"Hmm," Madam Rosmerta finished taking his order. "Well, I'll have your key ready after you finish your meal then sweetie." She was at an impasse, on the one hand, she knew the boy was lying, after all he was twelve, they were notoriously bad liars. But on the other, she didn't know why he was lying, so she was left with a few options, she could floo call the headmaster as soon as The-Boy-Who-Lived wasn't around to hear her, he'd have answers for her, or she could wait a little bit to see if he'll tell her why he seemed to be pulling a runner.

Harry laid down on the bed in the room he had rented for the night, the first part of his plan had been a success. "Step one, get to a magical business," Harry said to himself as he pulled out his checklist of things he needed to do to ensure he couldn't be forced back to the Dursleys this summer. "Step two, the hard part." He grumbled as he'd have to play things just right for it to work.

* * *

"Oh let me help you with that," Harry offered in the morning as he came down and started to help clean up a table.

"Mr. Potter, I do not need any assistance in tending my bar," Madam Rosmerta chastised the young man.

Harry however didn't stop. "It's the least I can do, I'd hate to leave you with all the work," carrying over a tray of empty bottles. "I don't have anywhere to be just yet so why not let me help you out a bit, give me something to do instead of leaving me to get up to trouble."

"Well," Madam Rosmerta could tell Mr. Potter was playing an angle, she just didn't know what it would be. "Alright, here's a rag," handing him the cloth. "I guess it's better than you pranking everything in sight like your father used to do."

"Of course," Harry smiled at the woman as he made sure to keep himself busy for a few hours that morning, until Rosmerta kicked him out.

"Great now, I just need to keep doing this until I get caught," Harry nodded as he made sure to avoid being seen by the locals too much. It wouldn't take much for word to get back up to the castle that Harry Potter was seen wandering around Hogsmeade. Not with Hagrid coming down to the Hog's Head for a drink every now and then.

Madam Rosmerta didn't know why Mr. Potter was renting a room every night and then in the morning acting like he worked for her. "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, and it isn't the fish," she said to herself as Harry had made it a week with her in the inn.

* * *

"Minerva," Albus said in a floo call to his deputy headmistress. His head suddenly appearing in her fireplace had startled her as she had just settled down to do some relaxing herself. "It's urgent that I come through, something has happened at the ministry."

"Whatever could it be that it involves Hogwarts professors?" Minerva asked as she walked over to her fireplace to let Albus come through, he normally didn't bother any of them until after a month to decide how to go about handling the start of the next year.

"Sirius Black," Albus said firmly, dusting off the soot from his robes as he moved across the living room. "Last night, he escaped from Azkaban. No one knows how or even why now, but it is imperative that we see to the safety of Harry Potter."

Minerva was shocked to hear that name. She had, like many assumed that business with the marauders was done with the incarceration of the traitor. "I understand that safety is important in this case, but what makes you so sure he will go after Mr. Potter?" Minerva inquired as she was still getting herself ready to go out.

"The last thing the guards recall him saying was, "He's at Hogwarts, He's at Hogwarts," Albus informed her as she gripped his arm to be whisked away to Privet Drive.

"Oh my word," Madam Rosmerta gasped as she read the headline of the Daily Prophet. She glanced up to see Harry Potter still diligently busing tables for her. _‘He'll come after the boy.’_ she realized that if the right hand man of You-Know-Who was on the loose then there could only be one target.

* * *

"What do you mean, Harry didn't come home with you?!" Minerva shouted as the muggles at Privet Drive just finished telling her that Harry wasn't there.

"I mean that the brat never came out of the station, he ran away, good riddance to bad blood I say," Vernon puffed out his chest. "I don't see why it matters now, no one has come to check on the boy once, not since that big oaf gave him his letter."

"Now Vernon, while you may not like Young Harry," Albus matched eyes with Mr. Durlsey in the hopes of gleaning some information that he could use to track the boy down, he stopped talking as he dug further and further in, as the surface information was shocking. Normally passive legilimency wasn't entirely legal, on muggles it was questionable, but full on legilimency was a crime, but at that moment Dumbledore did not care as he heard the screaming, the slamming and the anger as memories of how Harry was treated as seen from Vernon's perspective flooded his mind.

"Minerva, we are wasting our time here," Albus said firmly, restraining himself from striking the muggle down himself. "Young Mr. Potter is not here, we will have to work ourselves backwards." Storming away from the house as he was furious with the mistreatment Harry had been subjected too.

"Albus what is wrong?" Minerva said as she heard Vernon slam the door behind her. "Did you just remember something?"

"Yes, I did." Albus said darkly. "That I am human and make mistakes, and the mistake I have made was to put Harry Potter through a decade of abuse that I did nothing to stop."

"Surely it can't be that bad, can it?" Minerva asked as she knew that they were the worst sort of muggles but what would cause the Headmaster to react this way suddenly.

"That broom cupboard under the stairs, that was Harry's bedroom until the day he got his Hogwarts letter, and it was only after Hagrid had nearly threatened them," Albus' features were firm as he really felt disgust at the memories he had seen.

"How can you tell?" Minerva said, horrified at the accusation.

"I read his mind. I know, it was illegal, but we needed to find Young Harry before anything could happen, we are in a race against time, so I dug further in than I should have." Albus admitted to his criminal actions. "Minerva, they beat the boy."

McGonagall stopped mid stride, turning around and began to head back so that she could give the Dursleys a well deserved piece of her mind and wand, before Albus intervened by levitating her to his side again. "I understand, but first we MUST find Harry, afterwards we will inform those necessary and for likely the first time, justice will be done for Harry Potter."

* * *

Madam Rosmerta knew that the longer Harry Potter stayed in her inn, the sooner it would be that it hits the papers that he was such an easy target to get to. "I'm sorry," she said quietly as Harry went up to 'his room' that night, she quickly crossed over to the fireplace and threw in a pinch of floo powder. "Headmaster's Office Hogwarts." she called out as she had on the odd occasion necessitated getting a professor to corral rowdy students back to the castle.

"And you are certain he's been working for you for the last few weeks?" Albus said as he felt relieved that Harry was finally located. If he had just used any magic, they could have tracked him down quicker, but after his last summer he likely didn't want to get in trouble. _'Of all the times for a student to NOT break the rules,'_ Albus mentally lamented.

"Yes, he's just been doing that for a while, I could never figure out why though," Madam Rosmerta explained. "I wasn't sure if I should have said anything but he wasn't causing trouble and I thought he'd tell me eventually when he stopped making up excuses for being in my bar every day."

"I see, well, I will come down and wait overnight, should Sirius Black try to get in, he will have to get through myself first," Albus said as he needed to be there in the bar to catch Harry before it got busy.

"Thank you sir," Madam Rosmerta said as she ended the call, a few moments later, Albus Dumbledore flashed into her bar using his phoenix. "Always have to make an entrance, don't you headmaster?" She chuckled as she always pegged him as dramatic.

"Well Amber, I do enjoy that," Albus smiled as he cast a few spells in the empty bar that would prevent anyone from entering or leaving, then ensuring that there were only the three of them, Harry upstairs, and himself and Madam Rosmerta downstairs.

* * *

"Good morning, young Harry," Albus smiled as he watched Mr. Potter coming down the stairs, he was mid stretch when he noticed the headmaster sitting patiently on a barstool.

Harry froze as he had expected to be caught at some point, in fact his plan depended on it, but now that he was faced with his headmaster, it was a very different feeling. "I uh, well you see-" Harry stammered before running back up the stairs.

Knocking on the door outside the room Harry was using Amber and Albus waited for a response. "Harry, I know you are in there, would you please let us in, we have much to discuss," he said as he needed to explain to Harry the danger he was potentially in.

A minute later they heard shuffling, a swear, the sound of something hitting the floor and then finally Harry unlocking the door. "Tried to go out the window didn’t you?" Albus smirked as he could see the broomstick on the floor. "Not a bad exit strategy. You are after all an excellent flier."

"Yeah well, the window wouldn’t open so," Harry sighed as he sat on the bed, trapped in the room as he couldn’t think of another way to escape the inn.

"I know, I ensured that no one could get in or out of the building until I removed the charms," Albus waved his wand to unlock the window so the room had fresh air. "I did not want to chance that Sirius Black could get to you."

"Who?" Harry tilted his head in confusion as he'd never heard the name before.

"Before we get onto that topic," Albus said, putting the main discussion on the backburner for a moment. "I need to know why you did not return to your relative's home?"

"I told you professor, I hate it there, I wanted to stay at Hogwarts, but you wouldn't let me," Harry said as he wrung his hands.

"And because of this incident, I understand now just how much Harry. I promise you, you will never return to the Dursleys." Albus informed him as he had context for the reason why Harry wanted to get away from Privet Drive.

"But why my bar?" Amber interjected wanting to know why Harry ran away to her business.

Not looking up from the floor Harry blushed embarrassingly. "Because, well," Harry stammered as it was hard to explain. "You have a bed."

"I what?" Amber raised an eyebrow as she had to have been mishearing him.

"I read a book, it said that underage witches and wizards couldn't be forced out if they were employed and had means to provide for their own food and shelter," Harry said quietly. "Some old law from when there were like castles and stuff to stop villagers from demanding someone with magic leave."

"So you tried to trick Amber into employing you so you could not be forced to return to the Dursleys," Albus nodded as he thought on how the plan made sense, to a twelve-year old, but how it had some key flaws that again, a twelve-year old would have overlooked. Such that she never formally took him on as an employee.

"I'm sorry Madam Rosmerta," Harry apologized for using her in his scheme for freedom.

"But why Harry?" Amber asked as she had grown to like his companionship and help throughout the summer so far.

"I hate it there, they don't like me Madam Rosmerta, I figured that this would be better than staying with them," Harry said, sharing as much as he felt he could about how he used to live.

"Harry's situation with his relatives was not a good one and I will be working to remove him from their home," Albus said for Harry to inform him that he was taking this seriously.

"Really?" Harry and Amber said, one feeling slightly optimistic about the potential change in his living situation and the other shocked that it could be so bad that the headmaster was removing a child from a home, she'd never heard of something like that before.

"Now onto the main topic at hand," Albus cleared his throat as he told the story of Sirius Black.

* * *

"So he's the reason Voldemort knew how to find my parents," Harry gritted his teeth in anger at the knowledge that Sirius Black had betrayed them. "He's the reason they died, and he's coming to finish the job."

"In some ways, maybe," Albus admitted. "We are unsure if that is his direct goal, but it is so far the most likely one we can think of."

"Let him," Harry said darkly.

"What?" Amber squeaked as she hadn't expected that reaction.

"I'm not going to hide from the man who betrayed them. If he wants to try and finish the job, he'll be surprised that I don't just roll over," Harry started to think about all the ways he would make that man suffer, the pain he would inflict upon him for making him an orphan, he didn't even realize the objects in the room had started to rattle and shake.

"Harry!" Dumbledore shouted over the noise of Harry's magic, startling the young man into ceasing his release of energy. "Ahem, now, that is... fighting may not be the best option; he is still a very dangerous man."

"So was Salazar Slytherin's basilisk, I still killed that, so was Professor Quirrel, and I still killed him." Harry retorted, that being information that the Headmaster already knew, but Madam Rosmerta did not. She was very surprised to hear that Harry had killed something, let alone a professor. "I'm not going to let him come at me so easily."

"Well, there still is the topic of your living arrangements to discuss," moving away from Harry's plans for revenge. Something Albus would like to speak to Harry at length about, but that was most definitely a conversation for a different time and place.

"Can't I just stay here?" Harry asked as he didn't feel like he should really need to change his location. "I've been doing alright so far?"

"Yes, but we are not sure how much longer that will last," Albus disagreed.

"But does he have anywhere else to go?" Amber questioned, as if a bad home was the only other option, it would seem his choices were pretty limited.

"Unfortunately no," Albus admitted. "Until a hearing is held about his custody, I could not place him in the home of another wizarding family, even his time at the Burrow last year was nothing more than an extended visit with friends." Knowing that he'd be juggling political hot water once the trials for the Dursleys began, to try and keep Harry from becoming something for families to bid on to gain control over.

"Then I guess you can stay here then," Rosmerta shrugged as she figured he didn't have any other options available to him besides going to the Hog's Head.

"As much as I do not like the idea of Harry being out of a heavily warded area, that may be our only option for the moment," Dumbledore sighed as he couldn't even bring Harry up to the castle as no one was going to be there for the next couple of weeks, besides a handful of students, some house elves and the few professors that lived on the grounds and Dumbledore might like those in his employ, but even he would have to admit that neither Rubeus or Sybill would be capable of protecting Harry should Sirius Black get into the school.

"I'll keep paying for the room," Harry said, hoping to sway the headmaster into letting him stay.

"Nonsense, I'm not going to take your money to keep you off the streets," Amber shook her head, she knew something was up which is why she kept the money he was giving her separate until she could determine the truth.

"I will be more than glad to offer paying for Harry's lodgings," Albus interjected. "He should not have to pay for something that was ultimately my mistake." Knowing that if he had checked on Harry sooner or even once, he would have gotten Harry away from the Dursleys and into a loving home.

"We'll work something out," Amber winked at the headmaster, fully intent on giving him Harry's money so it can go back into his vault. "But, I think for now, we'll just let you take the day off, okay sweetie," ruffling Harry's hair since he'd been given quite a lot of information that he would need time to process.

* * *

As the two stepped out of Harry's room, they began the walk down into the bar below. "So what's really going on with him, Headmaster?"

"The family I placed him with was not the right sort, I have mistakenly believed that Lily's sister had buried her hatred upon her death," Albus said sadly. "I was wrong and as such, I will do what I can to correct that mistake."

"I can keep Harry here until you get something set up or he goes back to Hogwarts," Amber offered. "He's a good kid, hard worker, clever too if he was able to figure out a way to try and trick the law to let him stay."

"Yes, Mr. Potter is a very good kid and I am very proud of the person he is becoming," Albus smiled as he could see Harry becoming a staunch force for good that was able to use every positive trait that the founders desired to make the world a better place.

"Alright now, you just keep me in the loop and I'll do what I can to help out," Amber said as she waved off the professor who stepped out of the way of the morning rush that had been kept outside. "Sorry about all that, some business came up with the Headmaster, had to stay locked up for a bit," she said to the customers who, upon hearing it was for Dumbledore weren't too angry with not getting their breakfast on time.


	2. Chapter 2

“Harry,” Hermione gasped as she saw Harry sitting in the Great Hall. She had been looking all over the train for him but he was nowhere to be seen.

“Hey Hermione,” Harry waved as she hurried over to him, Ron trailing just behind her.

“Where have you been? Have you seen the news? How did you get here before us?” Hermione belted out her questions as Harry just smiled and waited for her to run out of breath.

Harry shrugged as other students started to occupy the tables. “Three Broomsticks, of course and I just walked up the gate.” Harry answered the questions.

“Why were you there and not with your relatives?” Ron scratched his head as he knew of the bar that his brothers would constantly brag about going to and the absolutely stunning barmaid who worked there, he was excited to see if she truly did have a chest bigger than his head.

“They beat me and I can’t stand living with them anymore so I ran away,” Harry answered flatly hoping that would be enough information for them to never bring that back up, at least for the night. “Amber let me stay, she’s really nice, so if you go to the Three Broomsticks you will be on your best behavior,” Harry warned as he’d gotten to like Madam Rosmerta over the summer and he wasn’t going to let his friends act like wild animals and trash the place like he’d seen other patrons do.

* * *

Harry had gotten himself into a couple of scraps with people who had a little too much to drink at times, especially when they tried to get handsy with Madam Rosmerta. That was a fun floo call for the aurors to come into, breaking up a fight between some drunks and Harry Potter.

“You don’t need to defend my honor Harry, I’m perfectly capable of handling rowdy drunks on my own,” Amber sighed as she waved her wand to fix Harry’s broken nose. She was no mediwitch but with bar fights not uncommon, she knew the basics well enough.

“Yeah well,” Harry sniffled as he wasn’t going to cry, he’d had far worse from the Dursleys. Funny enough, most wizards couldn’t punch for shit so Harry was seven and zero for knocking out patrons because of how much punishment he could take. “I don’t like it when they talk about you that way.”

Pinching his cheek, Amber smiled at the young man. “You’re going to be breaking hearts one day Harry if you keep on trying to save every damsel in distress you come across.”

* * *

“So you’ve been hanging around a dingy old bar all Summer?” Hermione questioned knowing she’d need to come back to the fact that his relatives beat him and this was the first she was hearing of it.

“It’s not dingy, it’s rustic and I’ve been working for Amber,” Harry corrected Hermione. “I’ll tell you more after the sorting, okay?” Harry said cutting off any further discussion as he watched the new first years come into the school.

After the headmaster introduced the new defense against the dark arts professor and some announcements regarding the dementors that would be guarding the school, the students fell into their feasting as soon as the food appeared on the table. “So what happened this summer?” Hermione asked as they walked up to the Gryffindor common room.

“You know how I said I just wanted to finish that last page before getting off the Hogwarts Express?” Harry slyly smiled.

Hermione nodded as she remembered the last time she saw him.

“Well I didn’t, I stayed on the train all the way back up to Hogsmeade,” Harry explained to the bushy haired girl. “It was rough but once I was there I had to enact the next step of my plan.”

“You made a plan?” Hermione snorted in amusement.

Harry looked offended at the notion that he couldn’t come up with plans on his own. “As a matter of fact I did, after first year, I had begged the headmaster to let me stay at Hogwarts for the summer. He denied me, saying it was for my own safety to stay with the Dursleys.”   
  
“But why Hogsmeade? What does that have to do with any of this?” Hermione interrupted as she wasn’t seeing the connection.

“I was getting to that,” Harry rolled his eyes. “So you remember last year, how after the fraud’s dueling club everyone in the castle thought I was the next dark lord? I had to hide away from people at times since it was getting to be too much, and since most people outside of you or the Ravenclaws only go to the library when they need to, I was able to use that as a place to get away from everyone else.”

“There I found some books on wizard laws, mostly just to pass the time, but in one of them was a passage regarding housing. An old law, but one from before the Statute of Secrecy, and as long as I could provide for my own food and necessities, if I was employed I could not be forcibly removed from where I was residing.”

“Wait, that sounds fishy,” Hermione scratched her head as she was not a legal scholar but something about his plan wasn’t adding up, surely she thought, it couldn’t be that easy to run away for a witch or wizard.

“It’s sort of like a house elf, but also not. Anyway, I picked the Three Broomsticks since it’s also an inn, which means there are beds available,” Harry continued his story. “All I had to do was continue to work for Amber long enough that when someone finally came to get me, I could use the law to stop them from returning me to the Dursleys.”

“But what about Sirius Black?” Hermione wondered as she was very much concerned about the escaped mass murderer as even she had heard of his escape.

“Didn’t know about him, I do now, but...” Harry sighed. “I couldn’t stay at the Dursleys for another summer, and the headmaster finally agreed with me, he’s trying to remove custody from them.”

“It surely can’t be that bad?” she gasped as she didn’t want to believe the situation had progressed so badly that the headmaster had to get involved.

“It was Hermione, I wasn’t joking when I said they beat me.” Harry firmly told her and waited until she nodded so he was certain she understood. “And that’s not even the worst of it. I HAD to leave, if I didn’t someone was going to die and I honestly cannot say who it would have been. This is not a debate, I don’t need or want you questioning this, I. had. to. go.”

“Okay Harry,” Hermione quietly said as she didn’t know Harry’s home situation and if he was this serious about it, she knew she shouldn’t say anything even if she didn’t think it was that bad.

“Good, now I need to get some sleep, we have a long year ahead of us and a deranged madman who is coming to corpsify me,” Harry said loud enough for others to hear and cringe at the dark humor. “So I’d prefer to at least be well rested before I join my parents.”

“Well, he’s clearly in a good mood,” Ron said sarcastically as he sat on the couch having decided to sit on the sidelines for this conversation. “Everybody is mental.” He muttered as he questioned how he was friends with all these crazy people.

* * *

“Today we will be learning about Boggarts,” Professor Remus Lupin said to the class who were assembled for their first lesson.

Harry listened to the explanation of what a boggart was and did, a creature that took the shape of your greatest fear.  _ ‘I wonder what mine is then?’  _ Harry wondered as the line moved up.  _ “It can’t be something like the basilisk, I literally conquered that, so I’m pretty sure that counts as conquering your fear. Maybe Aragog, but even he wasn’t too scary just, kind of a jerk,’  _ Harry continued to ponder as he came to his turn.

“FREAK!!!” A loud voice startled him as he nearly had a heart attack hearing his Uncle’s voice suddenly. Harry’s wide eyes looked up to see a red-faced fuming Uncle Vernon waving his belt with one hand and in the other holding onto a bottle of alcohol. “You and your ruddy magic, I’ll beat it out of you if it’s the last thing I do, then I’ll lock you in your cupboard until you bloody starve, you worthless… useless… Frrrreeeeak!!!” He shouted as Harry dropped his wand as he always had the idea of standing up to Vernon now that he could use magic. But he was overwhelmed with the angry visage before him, it made him feel small and weak, like he was still just a small child and that nothing had changed.

“Ridikulous,” Remus shouted as he hit the boggart that turned Vernon into a ballerina and quickly ended the lesson for the day. “Mr. Potter, would you please stay behind for a moment.”

Hermione and Ron didn’t particularly feel like leaving Harry alone after everyone in the class got to see what his greatest fear entailed so they stood by him as the Professor looked at the little group. “Well I would normally say this should be private, but I understand that some groups have strange loyalties, so if Mr. Potter is fine with you being here, then you can remain.” Waiting to see what Harry wanted before proceeding with his line of questioning.

“They can stay, they kind of know it,” Harry rubbed his arm as Ron handed him his wand back that he dropped. “Thanks.”

“No problem mate,” Ron patted his shoulder, after last year, Ron always wondered how bad things truly were in Harry’s home. Afterall normal homes don’t put bars on just one window of a house on the second floor.

“Harry, I’m not going to beat around the bush on this one, are your relatives abusing you?” Remus asked as he was concerned about the son of his friends.

“Not anymore,” Harry said, thankful that he’d not be going to the Dursleys ever again.

Sighing Remus ran a hand through his hair. “If Lily knew I didn’t do anything, she’d turn me inside out with her bare hands,” Remus groaned. “Harry, I need to tell you some things. I used to be friends with your parents. Not exactly shocking information, most people who weren’t death eaters were friends with one or the both of them.”   
  
“Your father did so much for me when I was in school, I can’t sit back knowing that his son’s greatest fear is the muggles he’s supposed to be living with.” Remus walked over to a bookshelf and picked up a thick green tome. “This has some spells that are a bit more advanced than what is taught to a third-year student, but Merlin knows  _ we _ never did things the safest way.”   
  
Handing the book to Harry. “I’m giving you this so you can learn to defend yourself, it has good instruction on the spells. Stuff that you can use, even on muggles, and should the ministry try to get you in trouble for underage sorcery, nearly every single auror knows those spells. They aren’t designed to do permanent damage, but to disarm and disable attackers.”

“Thanks,” Harry said, grateful for having the additional help with expanding his arsenal. “Professor Lupin? Could you tell me about my parents some time, if it’s not too much trouble?” Harry asked cautiously. 

“Of course Harry,” Remus smiled. “I know a couple of stories that the other professors wouldn’t dream of telling you. Might have given you too many ideas for mischief.”

“We’ve already gotten ourselves into quite a bit of trouble,” Ron chuckled as he knew that they already had a bit of a reputation with the professors.

“Ahh, then we’ll have to compare and see how the Golden Trio fairs up against The Marauders.” Remus cackled as he tried to be dramatic.

“No way, my brothers are all on about the Marauders and you were one of them?” Ron said in shock and awe that they were real people and not just legends.

“Of course, James, Peter, myself and… Sirius,” Remus hissed the last name as if it were pure venom on his tongue. “Those were better times, before the betrayals and death. But that’s for another time, you have other lessons to get too. And I doubt Snape ever removed that stick from his rear end. So don’t be late.”

  
“He has not,” Harry chuckled as he ushered his friends out of the defense classroom, so they can get to their next class.

“It’s amazing, they were real, wait until I tell Fred and George,” Ron said, practically skipping as he thought of all the ways to use that information. “Oh,” skidding to stop outside of the potions classroom. “Wait until they hear, you’re the son of a marauder.” Ron said as they stepped into the room. “We could restart them again.”

“Detention Mr. Weasley,” Severus said without looking up from his desk.

“Oi, what for?” Ron questioned as he felt he didn’t even do anything this time.   
  
“No threatening the sanity of those inside the school,” Snape said as he put the instructions on the board and left the class to their own devices.

“Severus, I have a complaint from a student about an unfair detention… again,” Minerva said during a staff meeting. “Ronald Weasley says you punished him for talking to Mr. Potter.”

“No, I punished him for threatening to destroy the school,” Severus snorted back a laugh.

“How so?”

“He loudly proclaimed his intent to restart the marauders, I wonder who gave him that idea?” Turning his glare to Remus as he protested the werewolf’s addition to the staff, but admitted in the end that his presence could be helpful in finding Sirius Black.

“I didn’t tell anyone to go out and start pranking things, I just feel that Harry deserves to know more about his parents,” Remus defended his actions from the sour looks the older professors were giving him, which lightened up as they all knew that Remus would be one of the few people to tell him about them.

“Hmmm, I think the punishment should stand,” Minerva said reluctantly. “It’s bad enough with the Twins, should other students start forming prank groups, then Severus may be right, the school could be destroyed in the chaos.”

* * *

For the Third Year students, it was finally time for their first Hogsmeade Weekend, a chance for them to get out of the school and go see friends and have fun. For most of them anyway. “You will need your permission slip signed by your guardians Mr. Potter,” Minerva said as Harry tried to come up with an excuse for him to still go to Hogsmeade with his friends.

“You know that wasn’t possible Professor,” Harry protested. “And it’s not like I have guardians right now.”

“Ahh Mr. Potter,” Dumbledore said intruding into the conversation. “Are you looking to go to Hogsmeade by any chance?”

“Yes sir,” Harry nodded.

“Well as long as you don’t go wandering too far and plan to spend your time at the Three Broomsticks, I can make an exception,” Dumbledore smiled and waved off Harry to go off and catch up to his friends.

“Why are we bending the rules for Mr. Potter?” Minerva asked, while she wasn’t opposed to being lenient with one of her favorite students, blatantly changing the rules for him was something unusual, especially for the headmaster.

“Because if Harry was able to spend the entire summer, with minimal incidents, in Hogsmeade. I think it would be fine for him to spend a few hours down there every now and then,” Albus smiled at Minerva with a twinkle in his eye. “Also Amber has been very impatient about getting a chance to see him again.” Minerva considered that the twinkle was for entirely different reasons now, but she didn’t know what he could possibly mean by that comment.

* * *

“My favorite employee,” Amber cried out in delight as Harry stepped into the bar. “Come on I got you a table reserved for you and your friends,” bustling over to set some butterbeers down in a booth.

Harry patted a few people on the back as he had gotten to know some of the regulars who lived in Hogsmeade over the summer. “Hey Dawlish, how’s work?” he asked as he saw the auror having a beer.

“Not bad Mr. Potter, you are not getting into anymore fights are you?” the off duty auror questioned.

“Not lately, but you know how people can get,” shrugging as he wasn’t responsible for some people having too much to drink. The auror raised his mug in appreciation because he understood in many cases that was as good as it gets.

“Harry, don’t tell me you’ve been getting into bar fights,” Hermione hissed as she seated herself in the booth.

“I never start them, but I will end them,” Harry shrugged. “Just don’t try and grope Amber and keep yourself under control then I don’t have to throw you out.”

Ron for a moment hesitated as there was a part of him that wanted to feel the voluptuous barmaid but he wasn’t going to do something so stupid as to get him in trouble to do it. “Fair enough mate,” the redhead shrugged as he looked over the bar that was mostly filled with Hogwarts students excited to be out of the castle. “I can see why the twins were saying how great it was to be here, just not being in the castle feels so… different.”

“It’s nice to be back here.” Harry smiled as he looked around the place. “It felt more like a home to me than the Dursleys ever did.” Holding up his bottle as a few more familiar faces came in.

“There you are Potter,” Draco Malfoy sneered as he came into the bar with a large number of Slytherin students behind him of various ages. “I heard you spent your summer here, working like a good little peasant,” Crabbe and Goyle chuckling behind him like the great lumps that they were. “I can see why you’d like it here, it’s dusty, filthy and you're probably used to all the drunks.”

“Malfoy, leave us alone,” Hermione protested as she could see that the blonde's words were affecting Harry negatively. She couldn’t believe that he’d make fun of Harry for having lived in an abusive household.

“Oh the mudblood is sticking up for you now?” Draco scoffed as he was ready to use that a girl was defending him against Potter but a larger well built woman stepped up to his group.

“If you want to be allowed in my bar, you will not use that language anymore,” Amber folded her arms and hefted her chest as she firmly stared down at the blonde brat in front of her. “And you will not hassle one of my employees.”

“Oh that’s great, you worked for this stupid bint,” Draco laughed after absorbing that Harry was actually one of her employees, her only one in fact. “Just when I think you can’t disgrace yourself further Potter.”

“Shut up,” Harry growled as he clenched his drink, restraining himself from smashing the bottle against Malfoy’s skull.

“Alright, I warned you,” Amber said as she reached out and grabbed Draco’s arm. “You and your friends are banned from my bar, so get on out you lot.” starting to drag Malfoy towards the door while he protested.

“How dare you, let me go. When my father hears about this he’s going to run this bar into the ground and you’ll be lucky to earn sickles as a back alley whore when he’s done with you,” Malfoy screeched before slapping Amber in the face to get him to release his arm.

The bar got shockingly quiet when they saw Malfoy hit the kind barmaid. “You arrogant little...” Dawlish moved to stand up as even off duty he could still run in a kid for assault when suddenly a black haired blur slammed into the blonde and knocked him to the floor.

And just like that the fight was in full swing. The Slytherin students not appreciating that a Gryffindor had attacked one of their own, Crabbe and Goyle moved to pounce on Harry who had just slammed his fist into Draco’s jaw knocking him out when they were grabbed from behind by the Weasley Twins who were always ready to help out a friend, and this was the first time they have ever had the chance to get into a bar fight and they were not going to miss it.

Harry stood up and looked over the other Slytherin students before raising his fists. “Easy way or the hard way?” he offered as the green clad students shrugged and joined in the ensuing chaos. With a quick one two combo Harry took out two more kids with his fists before Adrian Pucey leaped off a table and tackled him to the ground.

Hermione crawled under the table and shared the space with Ron to avoid the fight before two pairs of hands grabbed the redhead. “Ahh Hermione help,” Ron cried out as he was dragged out from underneath the false safety of the booth.

“Sorry Ronniekins, no escaping this one,” Fred said as he and George picked up their younger brother and threw him at Blaise Zabini.

“Weasleys fight together and die together,” George cheered as they rejoined the battle after ensuring that no Weasley avoided the field of honor that day.

Harry had managed to knee Pucey in the groin and rolled the older teen off of him before grabbing Theodore Nott by the back of his robes, kicking open the front door Harry and started a pile of the many unruly kids he’d be removing. “And stay out!” Harry shouted, alerting the other passersby to the chaos inside the Three Broomsticks. The other students were shocked about what they were seeing, the locals of Hogsmeade just chuckled as they watched the youngest bouncer they’ve ever seen kicked out half a dozen people in one sitting, which for them had not been an unusual sight over the summer.

Draco groggily got to his feet and grabbed a bottle, cracking it over Harry’s head. To his shock and dismay the bottle didn’t break like he thought it would and he was left staring into the face of a furious Harry who kicked the blonde idiot in the gut sending him reeling from the blow. Unfortunately for him he didn’t have time to recover before Harry smashed a chair across his back knocking him out of the fight once again.

“Alright, alright,” Madam Bones shouted as she and a contingent of aurors entered the bar after Dawlish called for backup saying there was a brawl at the Three Broomsticks. “Potter,” she called out looking for the one who had usually ended the fights in the establishment.

Harry raised a hand up and waved it around while keeping his other arm wrapped around one of the Slytherin beaters necks, the larger boy struggling to escape Harry’s hold on him before Harry slugged him in the side of the head and dragged him over to the door to be unceremoniously added to the pile of groaning Slytherin students. “Just need a second Amelia,” Harry waved dismissively to the woman who’d gotten involved with taking his statements after a few of his more laborious fights.

With a sigh, Amelia started stunning everyone who wasn’t Harry Potter and ordered her aurors to corral those Harry had already ejected from the bar. “Mr. Potter, I was planning to have a nice weekend,” Amelia said as she watched Harry grab the stunned bodies and drag them out of the bar. “What started this fight?”

“Malfoy threatened Amber, said he’d get his bastard of a father to shut down her bar and that she’d only get by by whoring herself out, then he hit her.” Harry said angrily as he painfully grabbed Malfoy and dragged him by his hair. “I took exception to that.”

Amelia shook her head with a smirk. As she knew a pattern when she saw one, most if not all of Harry’s fights had been because someone got handsy or mean with the barmaid. She could tell that this was pretty much an open and shut case of a spoiled brat getting what was coming to him. “Alright Harry,” Amelia said as Harry finally took his normal spot after a fight by the bar on a stool staring out into the crowd waiting to see if anyone else dared to start the fight up again. “I’ll go get Dumbledore,” with a sigh she moved over to the floo and informed Dumbledore that Harry got into another fight.

* * *

Stepping out of the floo were all the Hogwarts heads of houses along with Dumbledore in tow. “Well,” Dumbledore whistled appreciatively as he looked over the carnage of Harry’s rampage. “You certainly have a talent, young Harry.” There was something to be said about Harry’s ability to hand someone their own ass.

“Ehh,” with a shrug and a wince as Madam Rosmerta tended to his injuries. “Malfoy started it, I ended it.” Harry could see that Snape was fuming and looked like he wanted to tear himself to shreds but it was likely because everyone else was there that he didn’t.

“Harry!” Hermione shouted as she crawled out from under the table after she had been assured the fighting was over and the aurors had secured the scene. Her outburst interrupted the adults who were crowding around Harry to get his side of the story first. “Of all the, why in Merlin's name did you start a bar fight?!” Demanding to know what was going through his head when he acted.

“I told you, don’t act like an idiot and I won’t have to throw you out, Malfoy acted like an idiot ten times over, so I threw him out,” Harry said flatly, not understanding where Hermione was having trouble making the connection, she saw and heard what Draco did and said so he didn’t know why she couldn’t believe that Harry had meant what he had said.

“You can’t just solve this problem with violence,” Hermione countered.

“I’m pretty sure the pile of asses that I kicked, says I can,” Harry chuckled as some of the aurors nudged each other.

“So if I groped Madam Rosmerta you’d kick me out too then?” Folding her arms with a smug look as if she had just won, pitting his ideals against his friends.

“I’d want to see you keep going,” Harry grinned as Hermione looked scandalized about how Harry misconstrued what she said.

“Ugh,” she tossed up her hands and stormed out of the bar.

“What?” Harry said to her back as the door closed. “It’s a compliment,” he shouted after her. “Seriously, I wouldn’t mind watching that,” Harry sipped from a butterbeer that Amber left for him. He looked at the unamused expression on his teacher's faces. “I’m a teenage boy, what do you expect?”

“One day Mr. Potter,” Minerva shook her head. “You couldn’t go a single day without incident.”

“Amber told the dumb bastard to get out, he refused to leave,” Harry retorted. “Hell Dawlish looked ready to bring him in for trespassing, and I was going to let that happen, but he hit Amber. All bets are off then.”

“And the rest of my house,” Snape snarled, using what little information he had to try and shift some of the blame onto Harry.

“I gave them a choice,” Harry shrugged. “Life is all about choices Snape. They knew what they were getting into if they didn’t leave peacefully.”

“Now what are we going to do about this?” Pomona inquired of the aurors.

“Well in terms of liability, Harry’s in the clear,” Amelia stated, just to see Harry pump his arm in victory. “He’s known to work here in the bar and is within his rights to defend his employer and the establishment, i.e. he’s a bouncer, he did what bouncers do. It’s everyone else who’ll be looking at charges.”

“Does the fact that the Weasleys owed me a life debt for saving Ginny last year get them off the hook for having my back?” Harry raised his hand, looking to get the redheads out of trouble if he could.

“It would certainly help, since they’d have been acting in your best interest,” Amelia answered as she understood what angle Harry was playing.

“Great, I’d hate to see them get into trouble just for helping me,” Harry smiled. “Well, Amber, it’s been so good to see you,” Harry patted the woman’s hand tenderly. “Hopefully I’m not banned from coming here, because if so I’ll just have to sneak out of the castle and see you when I can.”

“You little charmer,” Amber chuckled as she waved off Harry who, knowing that he was free to go, decided it’d do him some good to stretch his legs and walk back up to the castle. Now it was her turn to look over the amused faces in her bar. “What? He’s a good kid,” she said loudly as she didn’t like the looks the others were giving her.

“I am well aware Amber,” Dumbledore winked with a twinkle in his eye. “Well, it would seem we have parents to notify,” Nodding as he seated himself at a table. “Could I get a firewhiskey while I begin writing up a few of the notes informing such families that their children have lost Hogsmeade privileges?” Knowing that the DMLE would be informing them of any charges against the students, he as headmaster would be revoking the passes of the students who knew better than to go and start a fight.


	3. Chapter 3

Harry woke up after a good night's rest from his first time back in Hogsmeade since the summer. Stepping out into the Great Hall he noticed multiple whispered conversations. Deciding that he didn’t care about the current gossip making its way around the castle Harry sat down and began to serve himself up some grub when a large contingent of the Slytherin students stormed over to him.

“Think you’re so great Potter,” Draco spat as he was furious that he had been the one warned by the aurors and was looking at possible jail time and not the half-blood who punched him. “When my father…”

“Oh my god, shut up about your piece of shit father, no one wants to hear it,” Harry shouted, stopping all conversations. “Is that all you ever say. My father this, My father that. News flash, no one likes your father and if HE wants to say anything about that, HE can come here so I can kick his ass for trying to use the killing curse on me last year.” He decided that it was important to learn about Voldemort when he could so discovering the man’s favorite spell to use hadn’t really been all that difficult so he recognized what Lucius was attempting to use on him before Dobby intervened.

Draco sputtered as he had expected Potter to grovel and beg for forgiveness like all the other times that never happened, but Harry standing up and directly saying he didn’t care about his father was new to him, no one said that about his father. “When my fa-”

“Stop it.” Harry ordered, not wanting to hear those words again. “You are such a worthless, useless little toerag, who can’t do anything without his father being there to put out his fires because he’s such an incompetent blowhard that he managed to make everyone in the castle hate him within the first week of arriving.”

“Muh-my fa-,” Draco stammered as he tried to get out his warning before Harry cut him off again.

“I can see why you’re an only child, your mother must have all the brains to realize what a complete waste of semen you were when she crapped you out into the world and hasn’t let Lucy touch her since.” Harry ranted by expanding his insults to include more of the Malfoys.

“Well at least I have parents, you fucking orphan,” Draco screamed.

Harry stepped over the table to get into Malfoy’s face, students scurrying not to be in his path as dishes were kicked off the table. “At least I know my parents loved me enough to stand up to that worthless halfblood bastard your father enslaved himself too,” his words eliciting a gasp of shock from the entire hall who couldn’t not hear what Harry was saying. “I work my ass off to make sure they would be proud of the person I am, because I am alive because of their sacrifice. I would never want to be a spineless, bigoted coward like you, because if so, then they would have died for nothing.”

“Get the fuck out of my face, because next time I won’t care about the rules, I won’t care about detentions, and I sure as shit won’t care about when your fucking father hears that I beat the shit out of you. Because I’ll kick his ass too.” Harry threatened as the other Slytherins had long abandoned Draco to the angry Potter.

Draco looked like he was on the verge of tears since no one had ever spoken to him like this before, he turned and ran out of the hall while the other students whispered quickly to each other.

As soon as Harry sat down he felt a finger very gently touch his shoulder, it had almost been too light and too quick to notice but when he turned he could see a very nervous older Ravenclaw student. “Were you… were you telling the truth?” She quietly asked.

“About what?” Harry questioned as he’d really like to get back to eating before he inevitably had to go see Dumbledore for causing a scene this morning, the first years looked ready to piss themselves.

“That You-know-who was a... halfblood,” the last word said so quietly it was almost inaudible.

“Yes,” Harry pinched the bridge of his nose. “Voldemort was a half-blood, his name was Tom Marvollo Riddle,” using the same fire writing technique the shade in the diary had used, it was a simple spell to learn and replicate. Harry displayed what he had been told in the chamber. “He told me himself from the possessed diary of his when he tried to unleash the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets on the students last year.”

“Wait, he’s not dead?!” Susan shoved students out of her way to get over to Harry.

“Course not, he was possessing Quirrell in our first year, for god sakes, I had to kill Quirrell to stop him from resurrecting the bastard using Nicholas Flamel’s philosopher stone,” Harry shook his head, he looked around at the disbelieving faces of the Hogwarts students. “What do you all really think only I survived that Halloween night? It never once crossed any of your minds that if I, a baby, could survive that the worst Dark Lord in history couldn’t as well?”

“I have to tell my aunt,” Susan shouted as she hurried out of the hall to find an owl to send a letter with.

“Jeez,” Harry shrugged as he looked around the room. “Anyone else got questions or can I be left alone for the rest of the day?” When he saw that the students were too engrossed in their own discussions Harry managed to get a few more bites of his food before he left the great hall his happy mood spoiled so early on in the day by Draco’s presence.

That it was a Sunday meant that Harry didn’t have classes to go to, but that also meant he had quite a bit of free time and since he’d already finished his homework he didn’t know what to do with himself. Hermione was still mad at him for the fight at the Three Broomsticks yesterday and had sequestered herself in the library. And Ron was busy telling anyone who would listen how he so courageously fought that Harry could have sworn the redhead had taken on half the castle in single combat.

* * *

This left Harry with no one to really hang around, unfortunately he also knew that this particular Sunday was the last day of October, which meant something bad was going to happen. So Harry found himself meandering around the castle with no particular destination insight when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye, a large black dog that he’d never seen in the castle before.

“You aren’t Fang?” Harry questioned as he approached the animal behind the statue of a humpbacked hag.

Just before he made contact he heard his name called. Turning to see Neville panting as he came down the hallway, Harry turned back to see that the dog was now a man.

“Oh my god Harry!!” Neville shouted when he saw a pair of hands shoot out from behind a statue and pull the other boy in, turning on his heels he sprinted away to find someone who could help.

_ ‘This is Sirius Black,’  _ Harry realized as the man began to accost him. He could feel the criminals arms tighten around him and had he been more composed he might have mistaken it for a hug. Instead Harry was furious and did what he had become well known for over the summer. He began to fight back.

Layering punches into the man’s side he finally broke the embrace and then slugged the man in the face. “Let go Black,” Harry shouted as he charged the man and tackled him down a hidden stairway.

“Wa-wait,” Sirius cried out as he and Harry tumbled down in a tangle of limbs.

“No!” Harry shouted as he headbutted the older man.

“Dammit stop,” Sirius shouted as he tried to push against Harry before he received an elbow in the gut for his trouble. Growling in frustration that James’ son was being so difficult, Sirius began to fight back.

It wasn’t until the sounds of hurried footsteps that Sirius knew he had to leave before someone found him, pushing Harry into a wall, he transformed back into his animagus form and sprinted out of the castle again.

The professors were shocked when Neville Longbottom had sprinted into the Great Hall and said that some old guy just grabbed Harry Potter and they realized that Sirius Black must have been making his move on the day that symbolized the defeat of his master. They had all but ran out of the Great Hall with a large procession of students following because they wanted to see the carnage.

To everyone’s surprise Harry shuffled out from behind the hidden passageway, his clothes ruffled and sporting a bleeding nose. Pressing his thumb to the side of his nose he blew out a wad of blood. “Fuckin’ showed him,” Harry grumbled as he noticed the professors staring at him dumbfounded. “Hey, good news, I found Sirius Black,” He smirked. “Bad news, he got away.”

* * *

Later in the infirmary, after the considerable time needed to get the other students to at least pretend they weren’t going to eavesdrop, the professors were standing opposite Harry while Madam Pomfrey checked him over.

“I believe that Black has confounded him, to make him think he was able to fight him off,” Severus sneered, taking the chance to denigrate Harry for his actions.

“Oi, if you don’t think I could fight off a gangly old man, how about we go a few rounds Snape,” Harry griped as he was annoyed with the potions professor’s quick dismissal of what had happened.

“I’d pay to see that,” Filius chuckled as he’d put his money on Harry to break Severus’ beak like nose.

Minerva sent a harsh glare at her colleague. “We are not starting some type of fight club in this school where we pit the teachers against the students,” she curtly said, trying to nip that particular idea in the bud.

Harry barked out a laugh. “Well yeah, it wouldn’t be fair. Hagrid’s way too strong.” As out of the professors the half-giant would be practically unbeatable in a fist fight.

“Whether or not Hagrid would be our ringer, let is refocus on the main topic,” Dumbledore said as he had considered that allowing the students to battle teachers as a means of gathering more funds for the schools in the past, but it was never an idea that really panned out. “Sirius Black did attempt to abduct you.”

“Yeah, about that, he was a dog?” Harry questioned. He was pretty sure the man was like McGonagall and that he could turn into an animal.

“Wasn’t he though,” Pomona sputtered a laugh as she recalled when the man had been a student and was hitting on anything with a pair of legs. Aurora and Bathsheda both snorted before McGonagall frowned them into silence.

“Yes Mr. Potter, Sirius Black is an animagus,” Minerva stated.

“And you knew about this?” Harry asked as it seemed like this wasn’t new information.

“We were aware of his ability to transform into a large dog for years,” Albus added on.

“And you didn’t think to, I don’t know, tell someone that?!” Harry shouted. “For God’s sake the man has been running around the country, telling people that they also need to keep an eye out for large black dogs acting suspicious might have been useful.”

“Well it was a-” Remus gulped. “He wasn’t the only one.” Nervous about getting so close to exposing that he was a werewolf

“What is that supposed to mean?” Harry turned to the defense professor.

“Sirius, Peter and your father all were animagus,” Remus explained. “Back when we were all in school they did it to help me.”

“Oh because of the whole werewolf thing,” Harry nodded in understanding. “What, you leave on the nights of the full moon and then Snape has us do a lesson on werewolves the next day. Practically screamed that information to the class,” Harry said as he noticed that the teachers looked scandalized that Harry was aware of Lupin’s condition.

Remus turned and looked absolutely furious with Severus for being so petty as to teach that lesson on the day he’d be out of class.

“Anyway, so Sirius Black is a dog, which is kind of fitting since Sirius is the dog star,” Harry scratched his chin when he noticed the teachers were giving him an odd look. “What, I pay attention in astronomy. And what was my dad?”

“Your father was a stag,” Remus answered. “We called him Prongs, Peter was a rat so we called him Wormtail, Sirius was Padfoot and I was Moony.”

“A bit on the nose with those names isn’t it?” Harry commented. “But at least I don’t have to worry about people calling me Bambi or something like that.” As if the other students were aware his father could sometimes become a stag, they’d think that meant Harry was a baby deer. He then looked at the faces of his professors who were at best trying to hide their snickers. “Shouldn’t have said that,” he grumbled as he knew they were going to use that later. “Should not have said that,” taking a page from Hagrid’s book.

“Yes yes,” Albus nodded with a smile on his face. “We can all tease young Harry about this later. But Sirius Black has used one of the hidden passages to enter into the school, this is a troubling development.”

“Professor, is there a way to tell if someone is an animagus?” Harry asked. “I was suspicious of Sirius when I saw him as a dog, but I didn’t know anyway to check without approaching, which is how I ended up close enough for him to grab me.”

“There are a number of charms that can detect the presence of people,” Filius answered. “The standard Hominem Revelio will tell you the number of people nearby you, even if they are animagus or hidden under invisibility, but it won’t tell you where they are, that would require more complex charm work.”

“Great, if I could learn that one, maybe I won’t make the same mistake next time.”

“Actually I might just make that tomorrow’s lesson,” Filius contemplated. “A bit of time for all the years to work on detection and security charms.”

“Is there a way to check who is in the castle, I don’t know a ward that would let you know the name of someone who crosses it?” Harry asked.

“There are,” Bathsheda answered. “However adding wards to Hogwarts is only ever temporary due to the age and size of the castle, it has its own protective wards that are centuries old and almost impossible to rework.” As a runesmith herself, she studied the wards of the castle for her mastery and the castle was impressive with many of the wards being so ancient and complex that replicating them elsewhere would be impossible.

“There was a map,” Remus tapped his chin. “The Marauder’s Map, something we schemed up when we were students. Filch got it from us in our last year and by then we didn’t need it and after graduating and joining the Order, it just sort of got forgotten.”

“That might be a resource we could use against Mr. Black,” Albus nodded. “Let us go and see Argus,” the professor turned and strode out of the hospital wing with the other professors following him.

* * *

Harry had returned to the common room shortly after and was swamped by numerous Gryffindors who wanted to know what happened. After explaining to them the fight with Sirius Black, Harry noticed Neville sulking in a corner. “Hey Nev,” Harry said as he sat down on a chair near the despondent student.

“Sorry Harry,” Neville apologized.

“What for?” Harry asked as he did not know what Neville felt he did wrong, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask.

“I didn’t help you with Black, I just ran and got the professors,” feeling guilty about not running in to help defend his classmate.

Harry blinked for a moment and nodded. “No, that was probably the right thing to do. Sirius Black is supposedly really dangerous and I was just fighting to not give him a chance to kill me, I honestly had no idea how that would have gone if we kept up that way, the other professors coming scared him off.”

“But I should have jumped in, like a Gryffindor,” Neville lamented as he didn’t think he was living up to the Gryffindor ethos.

“Believe me, I have jumped in before, never a smart idea,” Harry waved off Neville’s comment. “Getting people who know what they are doing and asking for help is far better in a dangerous situation than trying to handle it yourself. Plus it’s still pretty Gryffindor to act when afraid, that’s much better than freezing up,” Harry added on.

“You mean it?” Neville said, not believing that he was doing the right thing by what he saw as acting like a coward.

“Yeah, if I knew the right people to get, I wouldn’t have had to try and fight my own battles alone.” Harry stretched. “I’m beat, well beaten, but not defeated so I’m going to get some rest because Flitwick has some fun charm work for us tomorrow.”

Harry was right, the class was fun, up to a point.

* * *

“Now there are twenty-six students and myself, so upon casting the spell, it will show the number of persons in the room with us,” Flitwick said as he raised his wand. He had just gone over the principals of detection charms and some of the more common security spells. Many of which were ones students could use when they wished to study for tests in busy and noisy places. The spells also would serve as a foundation for curse breaking since you would in effect need to break your own spell to end it.

Flitwick hummed curiously as instead of the twenty-seven he had been expecting, it was twenty-eight. “Sir,” Hermione raised her hand. “Did I do something wrong, my spell told me there are twenty-eight people in the room?” she asked as she looked around.

Flitwick flicked his wand and all the doors and windows to the room slammed shut loudly. “Just a moment students while I use some more, esoteric spells,” Flitwick said as he cast a much more advanced spell which caused Ron’s pocket to glow. “Mr. Weasley, empty your pockets,” Professor Flitwick demanded of the student while keeping his wand trained on Ron.

Nervously the young Weasley pulled out Scabbers and with a single spell was forced out of his animagus form and back into that of a man. “My word,” Filius gasped as he recognized the former student. Quickly shooting off his patronus to have Dumbledore come straight to his office, Peter used that time to grab onto Ron.

“Aaah help me,” Ron shouted as he felt a wand press into his neck, the same wand that Peter had been keeping safe for the Dark Lord.

“Peter, don’t do this,” Filius said as he watched the man creep slowly towards the exit.

“I can’t go back, Black is going to kill me,” Peter said as his gaze flicked around the room rapidly, trying to keep all the students in his line of sight so that no one got any funny ideas.

“Yes, but that shouldn’t be possible for a dead man Peter,” Albus said as the door opened and the headmaster stood at the ready.

“I have a hostage Dumbledore,” Peter hissed as he pressed the wand deeper into Ron's neck. “Now let me go or I’ll use the same blasting curse I did twelve years ago,” threatening the boy. “One wrong move and you’ll have a dead kid on your conscience.

Albus sighed and stepped out of the way, he would not sacrifice one person for another. If the cost of Mr. Weasley’s safety was that a potential criminal would go free, it was an easy choice to make.

Unfortunately for Peter, he’d taken his eyes off the students and a fast blur tackled him to the floor and started to punch the crap out of him, all the while the students cheered on Harry as he beat the animagus unconscious. Harry didn’t know who this man was, but that he took his friend hostage meant he had to be stopped.

“Should we pull Mr. Potter off of him anytime soon?” Filius asked as Harry was busy working over the fat older man.

“Hmm…” Albus pondered. “If Peter is alive because of what I suspect to have really transpired, then I don’t think I am inclined to act as quickly.” Realizing that if Peter was alive, then the betrayal of the Potters might not have been so cut and dry.

“Fair enough,” Filius nodded. “Alright students, class is dismissed, make sure you have at least two feet of parchment on the applications of the spells discussed in class,” his words barely above the volume of Harry’s fists hitting the man on the floor.


	4. Going into Year 4

“And it turns out that Scabbers was Peter Pettigrew the entire time,” Harry said as he finished relaying to Amber what had transpired in the castle over the week.

“My word Harry,” Madam Rosmerta said as she’d been listening to Harry tell his story. So had the entire bar but, Harry was telling it to her, the rest were just eavesdropping.

Harry nodded. “Yup and after he woke up, Amelia drowned him in truth potion. He confessed that he was actually a death eater and had told Voldemort where my parents were hiding because he was the secret keeper. Sirius Black was just the decoy to keep the attention of the death eaters. That had been a plan my father had come up with since he figured that everyone knew Sirius was his best friend and only the death eaters would be so bloody stupid to think such a high profile person was the secret keeper.”

“That’s horrible.” Amber shook her head sadly. “So he’s really been an innocent man all this time?” Inquiring about what that meant for the escaped supposed convict.

Bobbing his head Harry took a sip of his butterbeer. “I guess so, turns out he wasn’t even tried, Barty Crouch just threw him in Azkaban when they caught him.”

Amber tutted as she scrubbed a glass. “But where did Peter get a wand from? You said he tried to use your friend as a shield to get out of the castle, so he’d have needed to have gotten one at some point.”

“Dumbledore said he recognized the wand that Peter was carrying, it belonged to Voldemort.” Harry answered Amber’s question, the information causing the listeners to gasp. “Which meant he was there the night my mom and dad died. Sick bastard probably got off on it too. Then he just grabbed the dark wanker's wand and ran before Sirius tried to get revenge for my parents.”

Amber reached over and grabbed Harry’s hands, making him look up from the counter top. “I’m so sorry Harry. I’m sorry that nightmare never ended even after all these years.” She felt terrible that still now more details of that infamous night were coming to light.

All Harry could do was shrug. “Nothing much I can do about it, they’re going to make it front page news to try and get Sirius to turn himself in, just to confirm everything Peter told the aurors. After that it’s anyone’s guess,” Harry muttered as everything was now out of his hands.

“Well I’m glad you and your friends are okay Harry,” Amber smiled at her favorite employee. She hadn’t enjoyed hearing about how Harry had to confront a mass murderer in a classroom full of children, but that everyone was safe eased that worry.

Harry downed the rest of the bottle before stepping away from the counter. “Well I have to get back, they only cancelled half of the classes today and someone’s bound to notice that I’m not there,” Harry smirked as he flung his invisibility cloak over himself. “I’ll see you later Amber,” he said as the door opened seemingly by itself.

“Goodbye Harry,” Amber waved to the empty space. “That boy, sneaking out of the castle to see little old me,” she giggled as she enjoyed his visit to keep her informed of what was going on in his life.

* * *

“Ahh Harry, so glad of you to return,” Albus said as he heard the sound of footsteps from an unseen source.

Harry quickly pulled the cloak off of himself. “Professor Dumbledore,” Harry said in shock. “How did you?” looking between the gate and himself.

“I took the liberty of adding a ward as you said to let me know when someone comes in or out of the castle.” Albus smirked as he quite liked Harry’s idea from a few nights ago and decided to use it. “It’s not permanent, but applying it once a week is not that much of a chore and it does let me know when someone sneaks out in the morning,” his eyes twinkled as he looked at Harry’s embarrassed face.

“Going to see a lovely young bartender by any chance?” Albus inquired even though he knew where Harry had gone and why, the blush was all he needed to see to confirm it. “Regaling the lass with your tales of heroism again?”

Rubbing his shoulder Harry couldn’t look the professor in the eye. “I just wanted to keep Amber informed sir. And an owl wouldn’t have… you know.” He trailed off as he didn’t really want to tell the headmaster that he just liked hearing her voice and seeing her face rather than reading a letter.

With a chuckle and a shake of his head Albus looked wistfully in the air. “It’s quite alright Mr. Potter, I was once a young man at some point in my life. Of course the maidens back then didn’t look quite as voluptuous as Madam Rosmerta did. I understand when one has to sneak away.” He finished his piece and started to head back towards the castle.

“It’s not like that sir,” Harry hurriedly said as he ran to catch up to the old wizard, he couldn’t allow Dumbledore to think of him as some common pervert. “I wasn’t you know. Just had to,” stopping to clear his throat as he finally caught on that Dumbledore was messing with him. “So how’s the whole Sirius Black situation going?”

“Oh he’ll come out any day now,” Albus smiled as he had sent Faukes out to find him with a note explaining what he knew. While not a mail owl, the phoenix had an innate ability to find those who needed him.

“That’s good,” Harry said. “Well I have potions to get to and you know Snape sir.”

“He’s really not that bad if you give him a chance Harry,” Albus suggested as he wanted Snape and Harry to heal the divide that existed between the Marauders and Severus since their school days.

“Doubt it,” Harry waved off the headmaster as he headed towards the dungeons hoping he wouldn’t be late, which he already was.

“Ah Mr. Potter,” Severus droled as Harry tried and failed to sneak into the room. “It seems that you believe tardiness does not apply to you.”

Harry shook his head as he found a spot next to Neville. “I’m only late by a minute Snape, how many other students had to run all the way from Hogsmeade?”

“Ah yes, you went to go see that-” Severus smirked as he knew that Harry took every chance he could to get to the Three Broomsticks.

“Choose your next words very carefully Severus Snape,” Harry warned as he cut his professor off before he could put his foot in his mouth.

“Is that a threat?” Severus questioned as he was considering insulting the bartender to get a rise out of Harry Potter.

“Yes.” Harry answered without hesitation.

“Ten points from Gryffindor,” Snape said as he deducted some house points before moving onto the lesson.

Harry grumbled as he knew Snape would find some way to get at him but unless he was willing to start a fight, Harry would unfortunately have to put up with him. The rest of the lesson went along as normal but finally Harry was freed up from the dungeons and he was excited to see how the rest of the day went, apparently he’d be getting a chance to meet his godfather now that the truth had come out.

* * *

That was a bit awkward as Harry sat in a room with Sirius Black, not alone of course, as he had not yet had his day in court there was still an auror present as was required. That the auror was supposedly Sirius Black’s cousin meant it was mostly a formality. “So…” Harry tapped his fingers on the table top as he tried to think of something to talk about. “You’re looking better.”

“Yeah, sorry about me you know beating you up,” Sirius apologized for getting rough with Harry when they first met, but he was so excited to have a chance to see him that he let go of what reason he had and acted without thinking.

Harry snorted out a laugh. “Is that how you thought that fight went?” Harry said back to his godfather.

“Of course, Harry, I didn’t want to hurt you,” Sirius said as he didn’t get Harry’s point.

“You couldn’t have hurt me even if you tried,” Harry grinned as he couldn’t see the gangly man taking him in a fist fight.

“Oh Harry, I could have,” Sirius shook his head.

“Doubt it,” Harry disagreed.

Sirius looked offended. “You really think I couldn’t beat you in a fight, please, I could take you with one arm tied behind my back.”

“Hah, you were barely able to scurry away once I got the upperhand,” Harry folded his arms across his chest.

“I’ve been in prison for thirteen years,” Sirius protested.

“Excuses,” Harry said dismissively.

Sirius rolled up his sleeve. “Well I think the first thing I need to do as your godfather is to teach you some manners.”

“Bring it fleabag,” Harry shouted as he hurled himself over the table onto Sirius where they began punching and kicking each other.

Tonks looked horrified as the meeting that was supposed to be heartfelt and full of emotional breakthroughs devolved into a brawl that she ran out of the room to get to the professors to help break it up because she didn’t know what to do, she was just an auror trainee, this wasn’t supposed to happen.

When she managed to get a few professors to come back to the meeting room they opened the door to see both Harry and Sirius covered in bruises sharing stories and having a good time after their spat.

After that things in the castle went by pretty easily, he would meet up with Sirius a couple of times a month and get to know the man and on the weekends sneak off to see Amber down in Hogsmeade. Life for Harry was going pretty good that the year wrapped itself up almost too fast for him to believe.

* * *

“He should have been here?” Sirius questioned as he was nervously looking around the mostly empty platform. He had was excited for the chance to pick up Harry after he disembarked the Hogwarts Express to take him home with him to start giving him the life he should have had but he didn’t see his godson anywhere. And that was making him anxious.

“Oh didn’t Harry tell you?” Ron scratched his head as he had been getting caught up with his family on the platform as the parents chatted with each other.

“Tell me what?” Sirius questioned as the redhead was Harry’s best friend so would likely know more.

“Harry said he wasn’t getting on the train and went over to the Three Broomsticks,” Ron answered with a shrug. “He figured it’d just be a waste of time to come back here just to have to figure out some way to get back to Hogsmeade for the summer.”

“But… he’s… oh that,” Sirius pouted as it made sense why Harry had done what he did, it was painfully obvious about the way that Harry talked about the barmaid that he was completely infatuated with her. And he would be honest in admitting that if he had the choice to spend time with himself or a pretty and well endowed woman, then it was obvious what he would do. “Well I’ll just have to go and get him then,” Sirius smiled as he figured out that he could prank his godson. “Remus, we ride,” Sirius called out to his cohort who had been talking to the Weasley and Granger parents about his time teaching and answering some questions about homework when he was grabbed by the back of his collar and apparated away by his questionably sane friend.

Sirius was creeping along the side of the Three Broomsticks while Remus tried to seem as though he wasn’t with him, the man had been cleared and was ready to go out and cause mischief and getting his godson as the firsts person he pranked in thirteen years would be too perfect.

“Another plate of beers for table six Harry,” Amber called out as she set down the tray on the counter for Harry to grab and carry over. Despite not needing an employee having a second set of hands sped things up in the bar that she could focus on cooking the food while Harry just had to bring it around to the tables, that also allowed the patrons to let Harry know what they needed as he walked by which made the bar seem more like a restaurant then it was.

Sirius so far had managed to get into the bar without anyone calling out to him and was sneaking up to his godson. Just as he was about to grab him Harry turned around on him and gave him a no nonsense glare. “I will punch you,” Harry said as he picked up some empty mugs to take back up to the counter.

“What me?” Sirius looked around innocently. “I’m your godfather Harry.”

“Oh them I’ll have to make sure it really hurts then,” Harry smirked as he set down the mugs and picked up the next plate to take.

“Ugh,” the old prankster groaned as he found an empty booth. “How did you get so good at hearing people coming up behind you?” As he’d never once gotten Harry without first using a ton of spells to hide himself.

“Blame Dudley, he and his gang liked to play Harry Hunting, if I was lucky I knew the game had started before they piled on me,” Harry grumbled. “So what are you ordering, because if you’re just here to harass people then I’m gonna need that booth for paying customers.” As the day after Hogwarts let out was going to be busy with all the families coming in.

“Okay fine,” Sirius grumbled. “I’ll have a beer.”

“What kind of beer Sirius, we have a lot of them?” Harry asked as if he didn’t know any better he’d have assumed that Sirius was underage because of how often the people trying to fake being of drinking age had no idea how to order properly. But he’d give the man the benefit of the doubt since he likely hasn’t ordered food like this in a while and was still adjusting.

“Um, something nice I guess,” Sirius shrugged.

“I’ll get you a Belhaven.” Harry said. “Remus?” looking at his former professor.

“Oh some nachos I guess,” Remus figured that if they were likely to be there for a while then he might as well get a bite to eat.

“Nachos?” Sirius looked at Remus for an explanation.

“Corn chips with beef, beans, peppers, cheese, and other stuff on top,” Remus answered. “Seems that Harry suggested a more muggle menu besides the typical Scottish fair that everyone already eats at home. Kids in the castle couldn’t stop talking about chicken wings and pizza.” Being a half-blood and having spent most of his time in the muggle world after the war he was well aware of the food quote unquote normal people ate. “So it’s probably working out since this might be the only place to get this kind of food in town.”

Not that that was likely to remain so as more people wanting the food presented a business opportunity for someone to come in and start up their own shops to sell those dishes. But for now with this being the only place most purebloods were willing to go since they’d likely not step foot in a muggle restaurant that meant Amber was busy in the kitchens with all the orders she was getting.

Things were going well enough as Harry and Amber worked to serve the patrons that arrived in the bar until the door slammed open and a tall blonde man with an undeserved smirk walked into the bar. Harry leveled a very harsh glare as Lucius Malfoy looked around the bar with a sneer on his face. As the man strode across the room towards the counter the tension thickened.

Harry immediately fell in behind Lucius knowing that nothing good could come of that man coming into Amber’s bar and the moment he made to do anything that could even vaguely be seen as a threat, Harry would attack.

It was so obvious what was going on that the patrons were in a mixture of wanting to get the hell out of the danger zone and wanting to see someone like Malfoy get his comeuppance.

“Lucius Malfoy to what do I owe the… pleasure,” Amber said with an obviously fake smile on her face.

“I came to discuss the very generous offer I made on the building and if you have made the wise decision,” Lucius said as he looked around at the patrons.

Amber shook her head. “I’m not selling, least of all to you.” The blond had come in a while ago and all but threatened her into selling her bar to him at a fraction of what it was worth.

“Shame,” Lucius gave a smile at the woman that turned her stomach. “I was hoping you would see reason.”

“Never been one for reason,” Amber chuckled as she shook her head at Harry who was nudging his head, non-verbally asking if she wanted him to get rid of Malfoy for her.

“I can tell, you could have lived a much more glamorous life if you simply married into money,” Lucius commented as Amber Rosmerta was still an attractive woman and had been one of the beauties in her time at Hogwarts, she could easily have submitted to a proper pureblooded wizard and not had to sully her hands with menial labor.

“If that’s your attempt at flirting, then I’m sorry, but I prefer my men to be made of sterner stuff than someone who fell under the imperius so easily,” she grinned as she used the way he got out of prosecution in the last war to imply weakness.

Lucius gritted his teeth angrily and tightened his grip on his cane where he kept his wand. Before he could move an inch Harry practically snarled. “Do it and I break every bone in your body,” Harry warned him as he knew exactly what kind of man Lucius Malfoy was, one who would gleefully kill children and then act as if nothing happened.

Letting out a frustrated sigh Lucius turned to face the annoyance who cost him a house elf, his master’s diary and his pride only a year ago. “Harry Potter,” Lucius gave the fakest smile anyone on the planet could. “I have not seen you since that dreadful day.”

“Don’t bother with trying to pretend we’re anything more than enemies, playing coy doesn’t suit a snake in the grass like you,” Harry folded his arms as he waited for Lucius to give him an excuse to dispense physical violence against him. 

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Lucius grinned as he stepped around the child annoyance and headed towards the door. “Oh and… I will eventually own this building. A Malfoy always gets what they want,” he warned as he finally departed and the bar patrons breathed a sigh of relief that it hadn’t come to a fight since they were pretty sure that one would be ugly and result in at least one dead body.

After a few moments had passed Harry started to let down his guard. “Fucking asshole,” Harry muttered under his breath before going up to the counter to check on Amber who still looked a little shook up from the encounter. “Are you going to be okay Amber?” Harry asked gently of the barmaid.

“Yeah just, I’m worried that he may find a way to take my bar from me, for as much as a piece of shit he is, he’s a rich and clever piece of shit,” Amber sighed as she went back to cooking, everyone else in the bar pretending that they couldn’t hear them talking.

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect this bar and you. I promise,” Harry smiled as he would never allow Lucius to harm Amber.

“You’re too good to me Harry,” Amber chuckled lightly. “What did I ever do to deserve such loyalty?” Not sure when she had gained that level of trust from him.

Harry picked up a tray of food as he looked over his shoulder at the woman. “You were just you, that’s all.” Harry said honestly as he continued to help her through the busy day and night.


End file.
